How to view source code of header file in C++?

c++

Solution

The standard library is generally all templates. You can just open up the desired header and see how it's implemented†. Note it's not `<iostream.h>`, it's `<iostream>`; the C++ standard library does not have `.h` extensions. C libraries like `<string.h>` can be included as `<cstring>` (though that generally just includes `string.h`)

That said, the run-time library (stuff like the C library, not-template-stuff) is compiled. You can search around your compiler install directory to find the source-code to the run-time library.

Why? If just to look, there you go. But it's a terrible way to try to learn, as the code may have non-standard extensions specific to the compiler, and most implementations are just generally ugly to read.

If you have a specific question about the inner-workings of a function, feel free to start a new question and ask how it works.

† I should mention that you may, on the off chance, have a compiler that supports `export`. This would mean it's entirely possible they have templated code also compiled; this is highly unlikely though. Just should be mentioned for completeness.

Problem

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